Field tested children's books and storytime ideas

Menu

Tag Archives: ukulele for kids

Yesterday, my coworker Nicol Cassidy-White and I led our first ukulele workshop at the library. We had advertised it for kids aged 5-10 and their parents, and required registration to keep the group small.

Most of the kids brought their own ukuleles, but we had a few to lend out to those who didn’t, thanks to a grant from the Mockingbird Foundation, a wonderful volunteer-run foundation for music education (it was founded by fans of the band Phish). I had originally asked Mockingbird for $300 to buy new rhythm instruments for the kids to play at musical storytime, since our old instruments had gotten ragged and broken. To my surprise, they actually gave us $500, enough to buy 6 ukuleles with cases, which we are hoping to use for future classes and possibly even lend out to library patrons.

Our class consisted of 9 kids and a few parents who actively helped their children. They covered our whole age span: one five year-old, one six, three seven year-olds, an eight year-old, two nine year-olds, and one ten year-old. As you can imagine, our class was a bit, well, loud, especially in our tiny library. In between exercises, there was a lot of random strumming, so we started using the command “Ukes Up!” and holding our ukes upright in front of us whenever we were explaining the next step.

Here was the structure for our class:

TUNING AND BASICS:

As soon as we had the group all together in a circle, we did a brief overview of the parts of the ukulele (body, fretboard, tuning pegs). We asked the kids if they knew why the strings made noise, and had them strum a string and watch it vibrate. We talked about the hole in the body and why it was there (I had them sing into the hole so they could hear how it made their voices louder). And then we talked about the tuning pegs, and how they made the strings tighter (and the sound higher) or looser (and lower).

After that, Nicol and I went around the circle to help everyone tune up. This took a little while. Nicol had a ukulele tuner, and I had the GuitarToolkit app on my iPhone (I love this app, by the way. It comes with a digital tuner, a metronome, and diagrams for all of the guitar and ukulele chords). When everyone was tuned up, we had them play the open strings to hear how each note sounded, and that this made a tune called “My Dog Has Fleas.” I also told them the names of the notes for each string (from the top string to the bottom: G C E A), and that I remember them with the silly phrase, “Good Cats Eat Apples.” (I should probably come up with something that makes more sense, like Great Cockroaches Eat Anything).

We also talked about the different ways of holding the uke: either down in your lap, or close to your chest. We showed them how to cup the fretboard in their open left hands, with their right hands coming across the sound board. We actually had two left-handed kids in the group, a statistical anomaly (but then both my kids are left-handed, and my husband and I are righties, so go figure). This definitely made it harder for them to play, and I suggested that they get their ukes restrung upside down at a local music store.

STRUMMING:

Earlier this summer, when I was showing my son how to play the ukulele, he complained about the strings hurting his fingers when he strummed. For the class, I ordered some felt picks from Amazon.com, and handed them out to the kids. Many of them opted to use the pick for the rest of the class, although we did show them all the different ways to strum otherwise: with the fleshy part of their thumb, or their index fingers. I often use all of my fingers.

We talked about how you can strum down across the strings, or up, or alternate between the two. And then we had them practice strumming together as a group. I was surprised at how quickly they picked this up. (I volunteer to teach music at my son’s school, and getting the class to play anything together is usually the hardest part).

CHORDS:

After practicing strumming together, it was time to talk about chords. I explained that chords are two or more notes that are played at the same time, and that most chords on the ukulele are made of four notes, because of the four strings. Then we showed the kids how to hold their fingers on the fretboard to make a C chord. We had little white dot stickers to put on the spot where their fingers should go.

For the C chord, you usually hold your ring finger on the third fret of the bottom string. This is obviously really hard for kids to do, since they don’t usually use their ring fingers independently. I showed them a trick I learned from Alfred’s Kid’s Ukulele Course 1, which suggests that you can put your index finger on the first fret, and your middle finger on the second, to give your ring finger more support on the third. Mostly though, we just let the kids hold the note however it felt the most comfortable (a lot of them used their index or middle fingers).

There are lots of songs you can play with just the C chord. We had them try three: Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Are You Sleeping? (Frère Jacques), and The Itsy Bitsy Spider (Nicol had the great idea to have them play the Itsy Bitsy Spider softly at first. Then we did the Great Big Hairy Spider, and had them play loudly). Again, I was really surprised at how well this went. Yes, some of them were having a hard time holding the note, and many of the ukes (being new) were slipping out of tune by this point. But for the most part, they were strumming together and singing.

At this point, we had been going for about 40 minutes, and I could see that some of the kids were starting to lose focus. I wanted them to have some idea of where to go from this point though, so we showed them how to read a chord chart, by imagining that the ukulele is standing upright, and lining up the chart with the strings to see where their fingers should go. For example, here is the chord chart for a C chord:

We briefly showed them how to make an F chord, which was really hard, especially for the younger kids with small hands, since they have to reach all the way to the top string. For the five year-old, I suggested that his dad hold the chord while he strummed. A few of the older kids were able to manage it on their own.

We briefly had them practice switching between C and F, and then we tried a song, just for fun. The song was Everything is Awesome from The Lego Movie. Here’s how it goes with the chord changes:

C

Everything is awesome!

F C F

Everything is cool when you’re part of a team.

F C F C

Everything is awesome when we’re living our dream.

Admittedly, this part of the class sounded less than awesome. The chords themselves are challenging, and switching between them even more so, but at least it gave them the general idea. (In retrospect, it might have been easier for them to learn G7, and play something like The Wheels on the Bus, but I was kind of hoping to use something current and popular).

So that was the end of our class, although one 7 year-old, who was the only one with experience playing, asked it she could perform a song, and she did! She sang Go Tell Aunt Rhody, which she played with F and C7 (C7 is actually even easier than C, because you put your index finger on the first fret of the bottom string). I thought she did really well, and told her it took me years to work up the nerve to play my ukulele in front of a group, which is true.

We sent them home with their picks, and a handout I made up (you can print it from here: BEGINNING UKULELE (.doc) or BEGINNING UKULELE (.pdf, along with a chord chart of 8 basic chords from ukulele-chords.com. We also had them fill out a contact sheet to be notified of future classes. In the future, we are hoping to offer four-week sessions for very small groups (no more than 4 at a time), and group them by age (kids, tweens, teens, and adults).

Overall I was happy and relieved with how well the class went, since I had no idea how much kids under the age of 10 could pick up in one class. But I was really pleased with how receptive the kids were, and how hard they tried, especially on a sunny, summer Saturday afternoon. I’m excited about teaching more, and supporting the Ukulele Revolution! (Ukuleles are everywhere nowadays. If you don’t believe me, just listen to the music on most TV commercials). Plus, I just read an article yesterday about all of the many positives ways learning an instrument affects the developing brain: http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2014/07/music-language-brain.

I’ll leave you with a joke that one of the boys described to the class (I found this cartoon version later on Modern Life Is Awesome):

If you have any questions or suggestions, please write them in the comments below. In the meantime, happy playing!

There’s a reason I call myself The Loudest Librarian. My storytimes tend to be a little loud. One patron even took the time to fill out a comment card complaining, “that librarian’s storytimes could be heard in San Francisco!” (San Francisco is only about 8 miles away, so that’s not as bad as it sounds).

It’s not so much the reading part that’s loud, although I do encourage the kids to participate as much as I can by having them make animal sounds or chime in on repeated words or phrases in the story. It’s more that I do a lot of songs. Often I open the storytime with Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out, and when we get to the verse, “I’ve got to yawn my sleepies out,” I pretend to fall asleep, the kids yell, “Wake up!” and then I open my eyes in surprise and yell back. Yes, that’s loud, but it never seems to get old. For the kids anyway. I can’t speak for the parents, or that lady at the computer on the other side of the library.

At the end of the storytime, before the craft, I always pull out a box of shakers, drums, and other instruments and we all play along with a song on the CD player. It’s the kids’ favorite part, and I often get asked, “Is it instrument time yet?”

You might wonder what music and instruments have to do with storytime. Admittedly, a big justification for me is that the songs sometimes help younger kids, especially toddlers who may have gone off exploring during the book, a chance to refocus and come back in to the group. If it’s a song or rhyme with motions, like “No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed,” it gives them a chance to move around. It also gives them a chance to participate, rather than just being passive listeners.

Beyond those pragmatic reasons though, there’s a great deal of research that suggests that music improves reading skills. Specifically, it helps children recognize and remember words and the sounds that words are made of (phonemes). This literature review by Jonathan Boldoc from the University of Ottawa cites numerous studies demonstrating that children who participated in a music class where they learned songs and/or played instruments did significantly better on tests of pre-reading skills than children who did not receive the music instruction. (There have been countless other studies on music education, citing benefits that include stronger language development, higher IQ, better spatial skills, and higher test scores. Music instruction may even make kids nicer, more helpful, and better at solving problems. All of which makes you wonder why music is often one of the first subjects to be cut from schools.)

If one of the primary goals of a library storytime is to help kids grow up to be better readers, it makes sense to include songs and rhymes. Nursery rhymes are especially important. In fact, Mem Fox, in her book, Reading Magic, states, “Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight.” So even if you’re not comfortable singing, you can still have a tremendous impact by getting kids to clap along to Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake or Little Miss Muffet.

For years, I did all of the songs in my storytimes without an accompanying instrument. I had taken guitar lessons years ago, but I never felt confident about my playing skills, and the guitar itself seemed too big and awkward to manage with all the books and puppets I was bringing to storytime (that said, my boss, Thom Ball, does a fantastic job performing storytimes with his guitar, so I know it can be done).

Then I discovered the ukulele. The ukulele is small and light, and only has four strings. The strings are nylon, so they don’t bite into your fingers like the steel strings on an acoustic guitar. And it’s so easy to learn! At least for playing simple children’s songs. Most of the standards like The Wheels on the Bus, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider only require two or three chords. You can even get by with one chord for Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Frere Jacques. Ukuleles are also fairly inexpensive. I got my first one for around $50 at a local music shop. (You don’t want to go too cheap though, or you’ll end up with one that constantly goes out of tune).

Admittedly, it took me a while to work up the nerve to bring my ukulele to storytime. I was still struggling with chord changes, and I wasn’t sure how it would go over. But, oh, it was worth it to see the kids’ faces when I brought it out. They were so excited! I let them take turns giving it a practice strum, and they were mesmerized.

I don’t even remember what song I played that first time, although it must have been one of the three chord songs, maybe The Alphabet Song or Twinkle Twinkle or Baa, Baa, Black Sheep (it’s embarrassing how many years it took me to realize those all have the same tune). And yes, I made mistakes, but another nice thing about the ukulele is that it’s a fairly quiet instrument, and mistakes tend to be covered up by your voice, especially if the kids are singing too.

Plus the saving grace about playing for children is that they LOVE mistakes! You can usually tell a new children’s performer (especially a magician), from one whose had a few years on the library and birthday party circuit. The new magician may perform a fantastic show that moves seamlessly from one amazing trick to another. The adults are astounded. The kids are mildly intrigued. An experienced children’s performer will spend ten minutes trying to blow up a balloon: stretching it and snapping himself on the hand, dropping it on the floor, letting it go before the end is tied up. And the kids are howling with laughter. Mistakes are their own magic. But I’m not even sure my mistakes were noticed. Several parents came up afterwards to ask me how long I had been playing. I was embarrassed. “I only know three chords,” I said. But it’s so rare for people to see a live music performance of any kind nowadays. A little goes a long way.

Even today, with a few more chords under my belt, I don’t play my ukulele for every song, or even every storytime. A lot of songs, like The Itsy Bitsy Spider, have motions that require me to have my hands free. But I have a small repertoire of favorites I like to play: Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle, When Ducks Get Up in the Morning, No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed(Asheba’s version) and my favorite, Elizabeth Mitchell’s version of Freight Train. Ever since I started playing at storytime, a number of parents and caregivers have told that they’ve gotten their own ukuleles, either for themselves or their kids. So, even though I know I will never be Jake Shimabukaro or IZ, maybe one of my storytime kids will be. But in the meantime, I’m having fun.

GETTING STARTED: YOUR FIRST SONG

There are so many videos and resources online that can teach you everything you need to know, step by step, much more clearly than I can. For example, here’s a very basic video on how to tune your ukulele. The most important thing to learn is how to read chord charts, which are easily found online. Here’s one from a website called Ukalady.com. If you have an iPhone, there’s a great app called Guitar Toolkit, which has all the ukulele chords, and also includes a digital tuner and a metronome. Here’s a C chord on a chord chart, and here’s how it looks on the ukulele:

Imagine that the top of the chart (where the C is) is the end of the fret board, where the tuning pegs are. The four vertical lines represent the four strings. The horizontal lines represent the frets, which separate the different notes on each string. It’s a little confusing, because you have to mentally rotate the chord chart, and imagine it overlaid on the ukulele, with the right side of the chart representing the bottom string.

For the C chord, you’re going to put your finger on the bottom string at the third fret (luckily the third fret has a convenient white dot in the middle, which makes it easy to find). In order to make chord changes easier, it’s better to use your ring or middle finger, which is going to feel strange at first, but you get used to it. Then you use your right hand to strum all four strings just over the sound hole. There are lots of ways to strum. You can curl your fingers loosely, and strum with the nail side of your index, middle, ring and pinkie fingers all together (keeping your hand loose). Or you can strum with the nail side of your index finger only. Or you can strum with the fleshy side of your thumb. Find something that feels natural, and just practice strumming down across the strings, keeping an even rhythm.

There you go. Just one chord. And it’s a great song for almost any age group. For babies, you can have them on their parent’s lap, with their parents moving their arms like oars. For toddlers and older kids, I like to add these two verses: Rock, rock, rock your boat Gently to the shore. And if you see a lion, Don’t forget to roar! (ROAR!!!) Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream, And if you see an alligator, Don’t forget to scream! (AAAAAAHHHHHH!!) If you want a real challenge for older kids, you can try teaching them how to sing it as a round.

If you add in one more chord, a G7, you can play The Wheels on the Bus. Here’s the chord on the chord chart, and what it looks like on the ukulele:

It’s a little tricky at first to fit all your fingers on the fretboard, and even trickier to switch back and forth between the C and the G7. It’s good to just practice alternating chords evenly (C C G7 G7 C C G7 G7) until you get the hang of it. Then you’re ready for The Wheels on the Bus. It goes like this:

The Wheels on the Bus is also a fun, versatile song. You can make the wheels go really fast, or very s-l-o-w, or backwards. You can have the kids suggest crazy things that might be on the bus: cats, ducks, cell phones, peacocks (but not elephants. I’m no good at elephant noises). My favorite is to sing, “The parents on the bus cry, ‘Waah! Waah! Waah!” then wait a few seconds for the kids to catch on.

You can have the kids suggest other animals. One of my coworkers begins her toddler time with this song, at a library where there are lots of stuffed toys. The kids are usually holding different animals, and those become the animals for the song. She always ends with “When kids get up in the morning,” and asks the kids what they say. (It’s usually, “I’m hungry!”)

Once you learn the basics of chord charts, you can play just about anything. My favorite ukulele book is The Daily Ukulele: 365 Songs for Better Livin’ by Jim Beloff. It’s a wonderful collection of songs, including a section of kids songs (Rainbow Connection!), but also songs by the Beatles, Irving Berlin, Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, as well as lots of folk music and holiday classics. The best part is that there’s a chord chart for every song, right at the top of the page. I love to flip through and play a song at random, and I’ve learned a lot of chords that way. There’s even a Leap Year edition, with 366 more songs, which is also great.

You can also find an impressive collection of songs with ukulele chord charts for free at DoctorUke.com. Another book I’m enjoying right now is Ukulele Exercises for Dummies. The text assumes a fair amount of comfort with reading music, although there are audio files provided online to help you understand the exercises. But it covers a wide range of ukulele skills like different types of strumming patterns, fingerpicking, playing percussively, finger rolls, slides, bends. It’s fun to just go through a couple of exercises a day.

I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions, please write them in the comments, and I’ll try my best to find an answer. If you are a uke player and have suggestions or corrections, please write those in the comments too. I can use all the help I can get! Happy playing!